Conversations in an Anomaly
by Steph-Schell
Summary: Fix it fic for What You Take With You


Charmaine wasn't entirely sure where she was or what was going on. She went into the anomaly after Octavia and then everything got fuzzy. "Charmaine," a voice called. "Why don't you come sit down?"

She turned to see Marcus sitting at a table. The whole thing reminded her of when they had shared tequila. "This can't be real," she said.

He smiled at her. "What makes you say that?"

"Because over there is my father's cabin," she replied, pointing across the field. "The one I hid in when my men were after me."

"It looks like a nice place."

"It is. But it was in Colorado. Half way across the country from where we had our tequila meeting."

"You're too smart to be fooled for long," Marcus replied with a dip of his head. "You're in the anomaly. We have some time. Come sit."

"This is so strange," she said, moving on shaking legs to sit at the table with him. "I get why I'm here. But are you real or a hallucination?"

"Real isn't as black and white as you think in this place," he told, pouring them both some water. "I'm going to assume you don't want tequila."

"Kind of a no-no when you're pregnant," Charmaine pointed out. "But water is good. I'm pretty thirsty."

"You didn't have a problem drinking when we were here last time," Marcus teased.

"That was different. My men were around, and I was trying to be intimidating."

"It certainly worked on me."

They both smiled. "You never answered my question," Charmaine pointed out.

"I was hoping you wouldn't notice that," Marcus smiled. "But I am real. Mostly. I mean, my body is back in Sanctum and dying but my consciousness is here with you."

"Dying?" Charmaine repeated as she sipped her water. "I thought Abby was working her tail off to fix you."

"And she did," Marcus nodded. "But not in the way that I would have wanted." Charmaine raised an eyebrow. "She wanted me to be like the Primes. Put my consciousness in someone else's body. Someone would have had to die for me to survive."

"That sounds…terrible," Charmaine said. "Why would anyone want to do that?"

"I suppose because they're afraid of death," Marcus shrugged.

Charmaine stared at him for a moment. "You're not though, are you?"

"Why should I be? Everything dies eventually. It's part of being alive. The only reason life has meaning is because we eventually die. I'm not afraid to go when it's my time."

Charmaine wanted to answer when a pain ripped through her stomach. "I'm not an expert on delivery but I think my water just broke." She grunted in pain. "Hope isn't supposed to come out for 3 more months."

"The anomaly is trying to heal you," Marcus said in his firm, quiet voice. "From a purely scientific perspective, Hope is a parasite."

"Don't you talk about my baby that way," Charmaine snapped through her pain.

"I said from a scientific perspective," Marcus told her. "Now try to relax. Let's get some of these layers off you to make this a little easier."

"You know, if you wanted to undress me, you could have asked long before now."

Marcus laughed as he helped her strip down to her t shirt. "Anything for a joke, huh?"

"Look, I'm giving birth and my lower half feels like it's being ripped in half. I'll take anything to distract me from the pain. Unless you've got something to numb it."

"And in which part of my consciousness do you think I packed that?" Marcus asked. He knelt down to undo her shoes and then helped her stand to get her pants down.

"Stole some off Abby?" she shrugged.

"Do you really want to bring that up right now? You're kind of in a vulnerable position."

"I'm very aware of that and again, it hurts like hell. Help me please."

Marcus turned her face to his. "I'm right here. You're not going to be alone for this I promise."

Charmaine let out a yell as she pushed. "You just told me you're dying. How can I trust anything you say?"

"Because why would I lie? It'll be okay, Charmaine. I'm here. You don't have to do this alone."

She reached down to grip his hand. "I'm glad I'm not alone," she told him. "I mean, I wish you were a doctor but at least there's someone here. I'd be more scared if I was alone."

"No reason to be scared," he assured her. "This is completely natural. Your body knows what it's supposed to do. Just let it do what it wants."

"Do me a favor?"

"Anything."

"Distract me?"

"How?"

Another grunt of pain. "I don't know. Talking?"

Marcus nodded. "I can do that. What do you want me to talk about?"

"Fuck, I'll take anything. Except the fact that you're dying. I don't want to think about that." She squeezed on his hand as she pushed.

"I told you, everyone dies. That's not something sad. And I'd rather be dead than live like this."

Charmaine gave a pained smile. "You're still stuck on Earth, aren't you? Living in your hobbit hole built into the ground to protect the trees."

"Don't knock it," Marcus teased. "You liked the idea if I remember right. Or was it someone else who wanted to have a school with bleachers for kids to make out under and bitch about their teachers?"

"I think it was someone else," she huffed. "Someone who wasn't scared of what the future was going to hold."

"Why scared now?'

"Because that future we imagined together? This is about as far from it as you can." She clenched her teeth as the contractions kept coming.

"It's certainly not ideal," Marcus agreed. "Keep pushing. Don't try to fight the pain. It's your body's way of helping move Hope out."

"The quicker she moves out, the happier I'll be," Charmaine said. "If…ah, fuck…if you were still going to be around…how would you make this world better?"

Marcus wanted to say that he hadn't seen enough of this world to have any ideas about what he would do but he recognized a diversion tactic when he saw one. Labor was excruciating and Charmaine needed all the help she could get. "We wouldn't live with the Primes," he started. "I don't think that system should even exist. But we'd have a sanctuary of our own. A mill and well like we planned before. And a school for the kids. Farms to the west to grow our crops."

He was racking his brain to think of more things for their village when Charmaine spoke up again. "You'll make a hell of a ruler for that peace of paradise," she replied with a pained chuckle. Before he could answer, she let out a pained grunt.

"No, I wouldn't lead. I'm too old for that sort of thing any more. Leading is for the young. Bellamy, Echo. Raven, they'll be our leaders."

"Oh yeah? So what are you doing?"

"I never thought about it. History teacher maybe. Or farmer. My mother was always good with plants. I think I'd like that. What about you? What will you do in our peaceful village?"

Her answer was a yelp of pain. Charmaine gritted her teeth and pulled herself together. "Not sure I would have a place in village like that," she replied. "I've been a soldier all my life. What does a soldier do with no one to fight for?"

"You've got Hope. Or you will in a few minutes."

"And what a mother I'll make."

He could tell she was doing her best to be sarcastic in the midst of the pain. "You'll make a great mother," he assured her. "Hope is going to turn out so incredible."

Charmaine looked at him with sadness in her eyes. "I wish you were her father. Then I might actually believe that."

Marcus held tight to her hand. "I wish you could see yourself the way I do," he said softly. "Hope is so lucky to have you as a mother." She let out a shriek. "Easy, Charmaine, easy. I think she's crowning. You're almost there."

With her free hand, she yanked him close to kiss him. Marcus stared at her as she let him go. "If it's my only time to do it, I'm going for it," she panted. "Ah, fuck! She's…Marcus, she's…"

"It's going to be okay," Marcus said slipping off his chair. "I'm right here and I'm going to take care of you." Down below was quite the mess but Kane didn't bat an eye. There was new life coming into the world. Nothing wrong with that. "Just keep pushing as hard as you can. I'm right here to catch her."

With nothing more to distract her, Charmaine howled in pain. She pushed with everything in her and kept hoping at some point she would hear her daughter cry. Right as she thought she would pass out, she heard the sound of a baby cryng. "is that her?" she asked. "Is that my baby? Marcus, talk to me."

"She's right here," Marcus replied. "Just take a breath, Charmaine. I've got Hope in my arms and she's absolutely beautiful."

"There's a knife in my pocket," Charmaine told him. "You can use that to cut the cord."

"Not a problem. Just relax. I'll take care of everything." Marcus cut the cord and wrapped Hope in his jacket. "Here she is," he said, standing up. "Your little girl is just perfect."

Charmaine reached for her but they seemed to be getting farther away. "Marcus? Marcus, I want to see my girl."

"I'm not moving Charmaine. Just lean forward and look at her."

"I…I can't. Marcus, stop that." Charmaine tried to struggle to her feet but she was thrown backward in a bright flash of light. When she opened her eyes again, she was outside the anomaly with Gabriel and Octavia.

"We were worried," Octavia said, hurrying to Charmaine's side. "You were in there so long. What happened?"

"I saw Marcus," she said. "And my daughter…" She rested a hand on her stomach. It was flat now. "I gave birth in there."

"Gave birth?" Gabriel repeated. "Where is your baby?"

"I don't know. I need to go back in, I need to…" Charmaine started getting to her feet but Octavia grabbed her arm. "Let me go, I need to find Hope and Marcus."

"Mommy!" a treble voice called.

All three of them turned to see a small girl with brown hair and a gapped tooth smile exiting the anomaly. "Mommy, I found daddy!"

Marcus exited the anomaly, looking much like he had when he came down from the Ark. Clean shaven and hair short. "Hello Charmaine," he greeted.

"Holy fuck you're hot," she declared. Marcus laughed and Charmaine looked down at the girl holding his hand. "Hope? Hope is that you?"

"Of course, mommy," she smiled. "Me and Daddy came looking for you."

Charmaine opened her arms and the girl ran to her for a hug. Charmaine lifted Hope into her arms and settled her on her hip. "I don't know how any of this is possible. But I'm not going to argue with any of it."

"Best not to," Marcus agreed. "We have more important things to worry about." He turned his attention to Octavia. "I'm sorry for what you've been through. And I'm sorry for my part in it. I know it's going to take for you to forgive me. But I'm hoping you can at least put it behind us until after we destroy the Primes."

"I can agree to that," Octavia nodded. "So what's our next move?"

"Our next move is to find somewhere safe for Hope. And then…we're apparently overthrowing the government," Marcus smiled.

"Come with me," Gabriel said. "I know where we can put Hope. And we'll plan our next attack on the way."


End file.
